At the state level, churches that paid an extra amount last year on property insurance can get it back.
This article is
in part a reminder of information David Cranford wrote about in the Jan. 18
issue of the Message.
BATON ROUGE – At
the state level, churches that paid an extra amount last year on property
insurance can get it back.
At the federal
level, churches can receive federal telephone excise tax refunds.
All that needs
done for either is to ask for it – with proper documentation.
The ‘declaration
page’ of the property insurance outlines the amount of the extra charge of
property insurance, according to a fact sheet written by Renee Robinson of
Cochran, Clark & Robinson.
“The form to use
is R-620INS,” Robinson wrote. “This one-page form is only for exempt
organizations, such as churches. A copy of the declaration page must be
attached to the form.”
The form is
available on the Louisiana Department of Revenue’s website:
www.revenue.Louisiana.gov. More information is available on the Revenue
Information Bulletin (RIB) 07-006.
Background: In
December 2006, the Louisiana Legislature authorized a refundable income tax
credit for the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. assessments that
resulted from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
In years when
there are no catastrophic losses,
Louisiana Citizens collects enough premiums to cover their cost of
operations, which funds otherwise non-insurable properties. Katrina and Rita,
however, cost more than $1.2 billion, which was more than the Louisiana
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. could handle.
When all was said
and done, however, the state ended the year with a “huge general budget
surplus, so they decided to refund the surcharges, in effect paying the
surcharges from the state budget,” said David Cranford, pastor of Tioga First
Baptist.
“We’ve heard of
several churches that have received $800, up to $1,500 back,” said Michael
Stewart, Cooperative Program strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
“We want to make sure everyone knows about this and knows how easy it is to get
your money back.”
The federal
telephone excise tax refunds can be significant as well.
To request a
refund, churches must complete Form 8913, according to an IRS fact sheet.
The time frame:
41 months between March 2003 through July 2006. The computation: First figure
the telephone tax as a percentage of the April 2006 [yes, 2006] telephone
bills, which included the excise tax for both local and long-distance service,
and the September 2006 telephone bills, which only included the tax on local
service. The difference between these two percentages should then be applied to
quarterly (or annual) telephone expenses to determine the amount of the refund.